During my listens of this latest album by Hickory I often found myself confused and in question of what’s going to happen next. On a couple of occasions I found myself questioning their quirky choices and their eccentric shifts, only to be fully in agreement just a few bars later.
Hickory is a duo based in San Francisco and New York and composed of Gabriel Stern and Peter Mark Kendall, both singing and sharing guitar, synth, and piano duties. Calling Hickory an electronica duo would be a massive understatement. Even as the greater majority of the music they make is entirely synth and production based, there still lives a heart of sophisticated and meticulously crafted textures and passages that utilize all sorts of intelligent sampling, sound design, and pure musicality. Maybe electronica, but heightened.
Batten Down the Hatches is the title of their latest album release. A healthy batch of 12 pieces of music that encourages exploration and rewards patience. From the record’s first passages, the introduction of ‘Adrift’, the duo makes it clear that this album is not your average walk in the park. The entirety of ‘Adrift’ as a matter of fact is dense and challenging. The song’s experimental rave beats almost never relent, interspersed by serene processed vocal bits here and there, before settling into yet another rave. The last segment of the song has a very memorable progression that yields into lush strings as the song ends. The Bonobo-esque beats of ‘Sliding Back’, featuring bonobo-esque chopped instrumental pieces, and bonobo-esque production design all make for a listen that’s more accessible than ‘Adrift’ especially as the blaring, processed horns arrive. The piece then gets fragmented into an experimental bit that descends into a serene, soulful outro, as the horns and piano become sensual and human, relinquishing their electronic guise. ‘All the Time’ sounds like something Thom Yorke would come up with. With its decisive progressions, haunting vocals, and healthy dose of dissonance. The exploded guitar parts are bold and brash, and the acoustic drums that get introduced somewhere in the song’s second half are tastefully played. An intimidating stunner.
Even on the album’s shortest piece ‘Minuet for Tomorrow’, the duo finds a way to make the rich, classically-inspired intro morph into a bit of sensual, electronic soul. ‘A Man’ is a cut that celebrates dissonance from its opening piano line and eerie vocal lines. Never getting easier or more approachable, the piece jumps from the serene and ambient, to the hectic and groovy, then back again, while remaining ripe with delicious and inviting dissonance throughout. After Hickory’s ‘Fitter Happier 2.0’, titled ‘Upped My Dose of Seroquel’, the album’s scariest cut graces our ears. ‘Hold Me Down’ is dense and chock-full of layers. From its cyclic opening part, utilizing a processed vocal melody and a driving groove, on top of a web of intertwining, buzzing synths, creating a cacophony of sound that suddenly implodes into a heavy, battering rhythm, as the vocals somehow get more foreboding. A sequence in the middle with a relatively conventional piano was actively scary, as it built up anticipation on what’s to come next.
Following is the relatively conventional ‘On the Low’. When I say relatively, I mean like 18% conventional. The processed trap beats and vocals ramp up until they seamlessly blend into a soulful section with warm piano sounds and the stunning vocals of Whitney White in the album’s most accessible and beautiful passage. ‘Alone’ is the last of the album’s highlights. This tasteful piece incorporates a driving, overdriven electric bass part, percussive and huge, on top of whirring synths, to create a sense of homecoming via the song’s engulfing and calm composition. Short and touching. Call me a conformist, but ‘Alone’ was the cut that managed to stir me most easily.
Having played together and made music since 2004, and being inspired by the likes of James Blake and Radiohead, it comes as no surprise that Hickory have more than enough experience and sense to craft memorable and detrimental music. Expressive at all times, and divisive at most, ‘Batten Down the Hatches’ is an album of fulfilling music, featuring sections that will take a moment to forget. A treat for the lovers of experimental electronica, and to those who appreciate listening to songs that implore them to peel away the layers.
